How Can You Play a Role in Safeguarding the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure

For those who did not know, October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). During NCSAM, every week has a different theme based on safe online practices to promote a smarter community that uses the internet. This week's theme is safeguarding the nation’s critical infrastructure. Our critical infrastructure includes sixteen sectors which provide our food, water supply, communications, public health, financial security, network, and security. As October comes to an end and Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month (November) soon begins, I think it would be a great time to talk about how it is essential to be aware of this. In a Stay Safe Online blog post, the author shares five great tips that everyone can do to do their part in protecting the parts of the critical infrastructure that they own. Here is a quick overview of the tips:

Lock your credit: This is pretty simple, whenever you are not using your credit card, put the account on freeze. If your card is not currently available for use, hackers or bad actors will not be able to use it if they had previously secured access to it.

Two-factor authentication : Many Jungle Disk blog posts have mentioned this is the past, but having an extra layer of security to protect your data will always be stronger than just a password.

Be vigilant with your email: A lot of cyber attackers will send phishing emails that are meant to gain your credentials to your emails or other private accounts. If the email seems odd or suspicious, it is always better to be safe and use another method to verify the email whether it is sending a text or calling the email sender.

Monitor your account statements: If you see something on your account statements that seems off, whether it be a purchase somewhere that you haven't been recently or something you do not remember buying, do not be afraid to take action.

Where you do your banking matters: If you use unprotected or public Wi-Fi, you are at risk for exposing your computer activity and putting your data at risk for nefarious use.

Following these tips and guidelines can help everybody strengthen not only their cybersecurity posture but also the nation's critical infrastructure as a whole. Stay safe online!